linux os

what is the best linux os?
i am taking a class in school about linux and i want to run it on my old computer

That query will result in highly subjective answers, mainly comprised of opinion and hype.

In an effort to provide some normalization for what will be a jihad of sorts, I offer the following... and yes, this is all my opinion.

Best Desktop Linux (for a n00b): I would say probably Mepis or PCLinux. The reason is simple; simplicity. WHile not good habits to continue to preserve, the gui install and complete configuration would have to push those over the top. Do they scale, prob not.

Best LiveCD: Freesbie; Used to think Knoppix -- no longer. (Course, I am a freebsd guy)

Best Linux for more advanced users: Gentoo -- because it so closely mimics FreeBSD.

Best *nix for server platforms: FreeBSD (natch)

Best commercial Unix: AIX

Best Linux for servers in the Enterprise: SuSe (SLES)

Best "out of the box" secure platform: OpenBSD

As you can see, the choices are wide and varied, so here's my advice to you. Decide what it is you want to do with it, ultimately.
Then do some due diligence, and discover which one best suits you and your requirements.

Cheers, and good luck.

Moving on...

I'd say the best distro for learning about how GNU/Linux systems work is Linux From Scratch. Be warned, this will take much of your life as you install it...

If you want something pretty similar, but more usable in every-day life, I'd go for Gentoo. (In fact I have. ). If you don't care who does the compiling, you just want something that works, and gives you a lot of control, go for Debian, or Slackware. (Or maybe Arch).

Mandrake is also pretty good newbie distro, as well as all those Daemonguy mentioned.

It really is totally dependent on you - people spend years distro-hopping looking for one that suits them. I started on Mandrake, moved to Debian, then LFS, then SuSE, then Debian again, LFS again, and finally Gentoo. I keep meaning to try and use FreeBSD*, as it's installed on a partition on my hard-drive, but I haven't actually managed to yet.

The *BSDs are not actually Linux, but never mind...

thanks for the replys
my teacher told me to try redhat and see what i think so i may have many more questions on the way soon as i install it

did not see this topic when i posted this topic
http://ozzu.com/unix-linux-forum/best-linux-for-linux-n00b-t37615.html

Don't install redhat, all of the packages are out of date, it's bloated, and redhat aren't even supporting it anymore...

I would go with mepis, or if you want emerge without having to spend 2 days installing gentoo, you could try vidalinux

Fedora Core is the community based, vaguely RedHat endorsed version now...


But don't expect help on the Gentoo forums. I'd help you, but most people will ignore you - the problem being that VidaLinux uses Gentoo resources such as all the mirrors, and therefore bandwidth, ebuilds and all the developer time without giving anything back. No-one would object to a fork, but this is pretty much leeching...

from what I have heard, fedora is quite buggy



well.. gentoo is released under thr GPL so vidalinux aren't violating the license agreement in any way, Vidalinux is just a newbie friendly gentoo (well, everybody will agree that it isn't as good as gentoo) The other thing is that probably a lot of people who install vidalinux will eventually install the real thing

by the way there's a program called emerde (emerge for non gentoo distro's) which I believe uses the gentoo mirrors too..

I know they're not breaking the licence, but there's still some bad feeling about using the Gentoo resources, especially since it's probably costing the Gentoo Foundation money that it doesn't really have.

Best thing for a class would be to findout what verison your text is going to focus on and use that. When I took a Linux class last year our text focused on RedHat 9.0, and it actually came with the CD's for it (saved some serious downloading time).

I'm running Fedora Core 3 and as long as you install the proper packages for your distro (i.e. dont install ATI drivers made for XFree86 since it uses XOrg and dont install an NTFS patch made for kernel 2.6.9-* when your using 2.6.10-*) then it runs pretty good.
i started off with SuSe 9.1 because i had no clue which to download and that had an easy gui install.. and i liked the control of YaST.
i tried installing Debian, but didnt like it as none (of the one i installed) had GUI anything and i didn't want to use my pc for a server. but i was also told / read ? something..that mandrake was borderline easier to use then XP. so with that in mind, i'd assume the installation process would be easy.
but as for red hat, that is outdated.. however on red hats site they have the downloads for FC3 and in a half year? maybe a lil more.. FC4 should be out. i know some test versions are coming out relatively soon, but yea. i'm done babbling
*this is the remnants of my 2 cents. so i'm sorry if its hard to follow* lol

Don't you folks think the Berkeley people are doing some (both) new & beautiful things - [once again] - now with their open source Linux?